Archeron

The working principle of a Quantum Radar (QR) is based on the principle of Quantum Illumination (QI) which in turn has at its heart the phenomenon of Quantum Entanglement of continuous variables. Similar to the discrete case, variables having continuum outcomes may as well be entangled. For example, the electric field components of light of different wavenumbers (k) or frequency (ω) may be entangled to one another when there is a possibility of them mutually interacting.

Precision Agriculture (PA) is comprised of near and remote sensing techniques using IoT sensors, Drones, UAVs and Satellites, which help to monitor crop states at multiple growth levels. PA involves the acquisition and processing of a large amount of data related to crop health. Multiple parameters are involved in plants health, including water level, temperature and others. PA enables a farmer to know precisely what parameters are needed for a healthy crop, where these parameters are needed and in what amount at a particular instance of time. This requires collecting massive information from different sources and different parts of the field such as soil nutrients, the presence of pests and weeds, chlorophyll content in plants and some weather conditions. All collected information needs to be analysed to produce agronomic recommendations.

Gene editing: It includes technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA. Out of the many technologies present, many advances in the field of CRISPR-Cas have been made. However, to use CRISPR, researchers need to select the right target sequence first. This process can be challenging as it often involves unpredictable outcomes. However, with the use of ML, we can predict the probability of a particular sequence to hit the target or off-target regions reducing the cost, time and effort of identifying the right target sequence. Two such modelling approaches are already present (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/crispr/).

As the world reels under the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions have yet again revealed the critical gaps vexing the agricultural infrastructure and logistics systems; but there are a few countries only which are utilizing the crisis as an opportunity to push through politically difficult reforms that have been in a state of suspended animation for a long time. India plans to convert this crisis into an opportunity and strengthen its fight by becoming Atmanirbhar or self-reliant; a term coined by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi. In what could be termed as a Historic Day for the livelihoods of 60% of the population, the measures announced under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan focuses on agriculture and allied activities supporting the farmers of India.